Industry Research Summary: The Future of the HR Function 2022

Prepare HR for the employee-centric workplace of 2022 and beyond

In recent years, Human Resources (HR) has faced unprecedented challenges due to the  Covid-19 pandemic, and now it faces a raft of new challenges due to labor shortages, inflation, high turnover, and rising worker expectations. This requires many organizations to adopt new mindsets when it comes to HR management.

There has been a change in the dynamics of the workplace as organizations struggle to fill critical positions. “Employers have to show more flexibility to workers than ever before or they will risk losing them,” states employment lawyer Daniel Lublin of Whitten & Lublin.¹
 

An exclusive study conducted by the HR Research Institute looks at the attitudes, concerns, priorities, and skills of today’s HR professionals as well as their views on what will be most important in the near future. 

Key Findings

• Fewer than half of HR professionals believe they are doing a good job of meeting organizational needs from the perspective of employees, and many do not yet feel they are true strategic partners in their companies.
• Although a majority of HR professionals say their function drives employee performance, less than half indicate their departments are good at planning for the future.
• Most respondents say HR is at least fairly successful at creating a positive corporate culture, but worker retention is a concern, and they often lack the metrics to prove HR is meeting business needs.
• HR faces a wide range of key challenges in the near future.

HR’s Strengths and Weaknesses Today

Results indicate that on a scale of 1 to 10, a majority of respondents rate their departments 8 or above in their ability to meet organizational needs from the perspective of executive leaders (57%) and other HR professionals (59%). However, only a minority (43%) rate their departments this high in terms of their ability to meet organizational needs from the perspective of employees. Only a small proportion of respondents strongly agree with the statements that HR function drives organizational performance (14%), boosts employee performance (13%), and maximizes employee experience (17%). An even smaller proportion strongly agrees that the HR function plans for several years out (10%). This seems to be a bit worrisome. In the post-pandemic workplace, uncertainties abound and planning is often more complicated than before.

HR Preparedness for the Future

Less than half of HR professionals feel well prepared to thrive over the next two years – just 43% rated their HR department’s preparedness 8 points or higher on a 10-point scale. After dealing with the past couple of tumultuous years, perhaps these HR professionals see their departments as more resilient to change and better prepared to handle uncertainty. However, it must be noted that only 16% rate their HR departments 9 or above on their preparedness for the future.

HR Priorities Over the Next Two Years

Of the challenges facing organizations in the next two years, talent shortages (72%) are expected to be the most impactful, followed by economic conditions (53%) and changing work arrangements (41%). Further, the concern about economic conditions (58%) and talent shortages (48%) were cited as top priorities last year as well. The trend of economic upheaval coupled with changes in workplace dynamics has had a significant impact on the HR function in the past few years.

Skills Gaps that Could Hold Back HR

When we asked about the importance of certain skills to the future success of HR, four emerged as most essential:
 

• communicating effectively
• recruiting high-quality talent
• fostering a positive culture and values
• demonstrating leadership

As can be seen in the graph below, there are skills gaps in each of these areas, although the gaps are larger in some than others.
 
To learn more about the survey on The Future Of the HR Function 2022, we invite you to download and read the complete report today, including 9 key takeaways, to learn how these outcomes and insights may apply to your organization.

Note
¹ Miyagi, C. (2022, January 14). 'It's wild out there': Employees gain upper hand amid war for talent. BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/it-s-wild-out-there-employees-gain-upper-hand-amid-war-for-talent-1.1707646
 

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